I came across an article that declared, “…your brain can’t handle all 5,000 of your Facebook friends, humans’ brains are capable of managing a maximum of only 150 friendships.” It’s an interesting study revelation right? I think so. However, I want to point out the benefit of using a technology like Facebook.

Even if 150 friendships is all the ‘ol noggin can hold, I don’t think that means you have to limit the social circle of friends you have. This doesn’t mean you should start deleting friends and limiting who you’re connected with online. One of the benefits of social media is while we might be physically limited in managing the number of friends we have in our head, using tools like Facebook, we can stay ambiently connected to everyone else. Furthermore, as situations are relevant and of interest to us, we can then choose to interact with friends.

This notion, is what’s called “ambient intimacy“, I’ve discussed before on my blog. Ambient intimacy is about being able to keep in touch with people with a level of regularity and intimacy that you wouldn’t usually have access to, because time and space conspire to make it impossible.

For example:

• Facebook helps me see what my friends are thinking, doing, projects they’re working on and what they did this weekend.

• Twitter tells me what websites to check out and the opinions people have about news and current events.

• Flickr lets me see the latest family photos or pics from a recent trip. And it also shows me their latest haircut.

• Friendfeed tells me their activity stream of my friends online, what they’re looking at, what they’re reading and videos they’ve favorited on YouTube.

So while, yes Robin Dunbar, the professor of Anthropology at Oxford is probably right, 150 friends is the max for your brain, utilizing tools like Facebook and Twitter allows you to “feel closer to people we care for but in whose lives we’re not able to participate as closely as we’d like. Knowing these details creates intimacy (via @leisa).

And the best part about all this is …we don’t have to store it in that ‘ol noggin resting between our shoulders. After all, I have a hard enough time remembering to pick up my dry cleaning.
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My last blog post mentioned online influence. I explained that your influence offline vs. online doesn’t always transcend and cited an example of Bill Gates tweeting vs. the power that Ryan Seacrest has online. So it got me to thinking, why not compare recent tweets between Gates vs. Seacrest to see who really has “pull” online. Who would really win? The results were surprising and not what I had guessed.

(BTW, I never thought I’d ever write the phrase in a blog post, “Gates vs. Seacrest” …which come to think of it- would make for an awesome pay-per-view boxing fight).

In this unscientific comparison for online influence, I first wanted to establish and compare # of followers:

Bill Gates has 477,645 followers.
Ryan Seacrest has 2,952,473 followers.

As you can see, by measurement of pure followers, Seacrest easily overpowers Gates by 2,474,828 followers. You could say based on these numbers, the perceived reach and influence is much greater for Ryan Seacrest.

Measurement Methodology
My next step was to reviewed both Twitter streams to find a Tweet, older than 7 days, with a bit.ly URL, paired with verbiage from Gates or Seacrest that was along the lines of “i created this, and I want you to check it out by clicking the bit.ly link”. My intent was to find an older Tweet that isn’t active (so the numbers are fairly static), and the Tweet must be persuasive with a clear please “click my link” call-to-action.

Bill Gates:

Ryan Seacrest:

Initial thoughts: case closed?

Seacrest had 15,181 more click-throughs than Gates. My point is proven! Right? Bill Gates who arguably has more influence offline than Ryan Seacrest, has less infleunce online. Case closed?

This was the first comparison of many. When I performed other comparisons of bit.ly URLs between the two, the results were much different…

Bill Gates:

Ryan Seacrest:

What’s going on here?

The more links I tested and compared, I noticed that even with Ryan Seacrest’s 2,474,828 more followers …his click-through numbers weren’t that much more significant than Bill Gates (who has only 400,000+ followers). Most of the link comparisons placed them fairly comparable in terms of numbers.

• Does this mean followers counts don’t matter? (some people say to ignore #followers)
• What’s the right messaging/ communication for a conversion click?
• Does the time of day matter in which these tweets are being sent?
• Is there be a better “quality” or high signal to noise ratio for Gate’s followers?

What’s your opinion? What are your thoughts on online influence? What’s going on here between Gates and Seacrest? Make a comment.
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Recently, I’ve been getting emails and messages from friends telling me, “HEY, you’re on the first page of Google when I searched for X or Y. I see your photo and a link to your blog”. In my opinion, this is a big darn deal for anyone who creates content online AND is well connected online. Let me explain why…

This feature that people are seeing on their search results page is called, “social search“. And, people like my sister and my mom, who aren’t tech savvy, are likely missing the heading that explains “results from my social circle”. See below.

Google explains what “social search” in more detail:
With Social Search, when we search for [baby sleep patterns], [swaddling] or [best cribs], not only do we get the usual websites with expert opinions, we also find relevant pages from our friends and contacts. For example, if one of my friends has written a blog where he talks about a great baby shop he found in Mountain View, this might appear in my social results. I could probably find other reviews, but my friend’s blog is more relevant because I know and trust the author.

This seemingly small change is smart for Google and more importantly aligned with people’s behavior and the shift in our culture. When you perform a search, you are asking Google to give you back, relevant, credible information. That said…

…consider the following about trust + influence:

• More than ever, people do NOT trust businesses, corporations, government and institutions (2009 Edelman)
• More than ever, we highly trust the opinions of our friends and family.
• Trust in news media is down in double digits (2009 Edelman)
• Strangers are trusted more than celebrities and advertising (2008 McCann Survey).
• 85% of people who sit down at a computer are likely to first perform a search on Google

Do you get where I’m going with this? I make a point to tell you 85% of activity on a computer for any given person is searching for something on Google. AND now Google is placing links to your friend’s content based on the keywords you’re searching for, which is inline with the status quo of trust and influence shifting to individuals and strangers.

So, back to my original point at the beginning of my blog post: this change is a big darn deal for anyone who creates a lot of content AND is well connected online …because your visibility online just increased exponentially.

Every time a friend performs a search on Google, your content is eligible to appear if it’s relevant to their search …on the first page of their search results.

This is big.

What content do you have published, created, or exists that will place you on the first page of search results for free? Those that have content will benefit- and with little to no effort required.
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I digg photography. I really digg photo apps that run on my iPhone. I wanted to share with you an app called TiltShift which I recently downloaded that I think is awesome.

What does “tilt shift” mean? Basically it’s selective focus. The super-fancy definition = Tilt shift comprises of two parts, the tilt and the shift. Both of these involve moving the lens in relation to the film plane. The main historical use was for architectural photography- the lens could be tilted to also tilt the focal plane, meaning that the photographer could have things both near and far in focus at the same time (source).

Anyways, back to how cool this app is. First, it’s cheap- priced at $0.99. It allows you to take any photo you’ve snapped with your iPhone and drag, stretch, pivot a red circle to indicate which portion of the photo you’d like in focus. The app will take care of blurring the rest of the photo for you. You can even choose the intensity of the blur. Take a look at the before and after photos (below). This app is great for getting creative with your photos- without even having to launch photoshop! I’ve started using it and love it. If you’re following my flickr stream or me on Facebook, you’ll see photos upped using this app in the near future …it’s awesome! You can download it here.

Do you use any other great iPhone photo applications? Share it! Tell me in the comments.

BEFORE photo

AFTER photo

OK, I’ll admit it. I was the disappointed with the launch of the Apple iPad. It didn’t change the face of computing as we know it today. And it doesn’t revolutionize your life either (or fold your laundry).

But, that’s exactly the problem.

The expectation that this device would do exactly that made for huge buzz-kill for most of us techy-geek-heads. But, again- that’s exactly the problem.

Perhaps this device isn’t for techy-geek-heads.

Has anyone considered that since this is an “instant on” device (no startup waiting) the many practicalities and convenience of being able to instantly browse the web or open media files. There isn’t a netbook out there that performs as quick or as beautifully as the iPad.

Perhaps there many practical uses for this device we have yet to consider, take for example; graphic designers showing their portfolio at a coffee shop meeting, real-estate agents working with clients using it to show photos and their properties, photographers portfolios, or anyone who sells anything could use this device in a meeting (I already show friends and clients photos and portfolios with my iPhone and I’m confident the iPad likely does it better).

Perhaps everyone has “office space syndrome” and we are just hopping on the jump-to-conclusions mat before anyone really actually has used the device besides the techy-geek-heads out there.

The verdict is still out in my book until I actually get to physically hold it- touch it- use it and put it through my own tests. And for the record, I would still camp out for this device. I want it.

What do you think? What was your reaction to the iPad? Do you want to buy an iPad? Leave a comment.

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If you don’t think I’m a geek (already), you will after you get done reading this blog post.

Back, in July of 2008, I was 1 of the few crazy people who waited over 10+ hours to get the 3G iPhone. I even video blogged it and took photos.

Several people have asked me, was it worth it? (i was interviewed on Fox and NBC and was asked this same question). What are my thoughts now?

I would do it again.

When I tell people what I did- it sounds 100% crazy: 10 hours of waiting in line overnight, outside, I took a 1-hour nap on the concrete sidewalk, with only 1 Starbucks donut and Frap to eat and drink. All this, just to be 1 of the first people to buy a new phone.

But I’m telling you, I’d do it all over again. And like Scoble, yes, I am a fanboi too.

Many blogs are quoting Steve Jobs in saying this new tablet (still unconfirmed) release is, “the most important thing I’ve ever done.” Considering his achievements, that’s a powerful quote. The release of this product has taken years in the making- which I’ve followed closely.

Will I camp out when it goes on sale?

I want to. Half the excitement from a major release like this is the people you meet. There’s only a select few who are dedicated and passionate enough to do this. It’s completely idiotic and wonderful in every respect. The experience of the camp out is worth it- and the privileged of getting to use first whatever this device might be- I want to be apart of it.

PLEASE NOTE: once a release date is set, I’ll formalize my offer in a blog post that is open to anyone: the open proposal for sponsorship of my camp out at the low cost of whatever the device selling price is. This will be in exchange for the rights to a video blog and photos from the camp out experience (the sponsor gets full rights to the video and photos I take, more details later). Furthermore, I’ll wear t-shirts / hats / signs or whatever swag you’d like during my camp out. Heck, I’ll setup a tent with your logo on it if you want. I’m open to ideas. Drop me an email if you’re interested (email@ramseymohsen.com), I’ll be posting details later.

You might think I’m going out on a limb here- I am.

Some of you follow me on Twitter, my tweet explains my thoughts and expectations for this week’s rumored Apple tablet launch:

So now we all wait till Wednesday …and I’m totally pumped for it. Do you think I’m crazy? Tell me all your thoughts good AND bad in the comments.

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I’m a big fan of podcasts. Recently, I learned you can stream podcasts without having to download them on your iPhone! I’m sharing this with you because it’s seems to be such a “hidden” feature that I certainly wasn’t aware of (but it’s been available for a while). Launch the iTunes app and just search for any podcast and click on the title to start playing it. Simple and easy. I have a 20-minute commute into work each day, which is the perfect time window of time to catch up on my podcasts without having to dock my iPod and download them first.

Some people think podcasts are dead. I don’t agree with them. The podcasts I follow I are my own personal “virtual teachers”. I consider it my free continuing education tool. It helps me stay up with industry knowledge, teach me how to be better communicator, they provide motivation and I always enjoy comparing notes on how others “tell a great story”. Mitch Joel’s Six Pixels is one of my favorites to follow.

Do you listen to podcasts? What are your favorite podcasts to follow and why? Make a comment and share it with everyone. It’s great discovering new and interesting podcasts. Tell me your what are your favorites.

I have one more thing to say about CES 2010 that somehow I didn’t cover in 1 out of the hundreds elevendy +plus video blogs I posted

3DTV at your house is stupid.

No really, it’s dumb. Ok, I’m being a bit Jersey Shore dramatic, but I viewed the best 3DTV’s in the world at CES this year from every major manufacturer (Panasonic, Sony, Samsung, yade-yada) and I’m telling you it’s over hyped and it under-delivers.

Consider my 3 simple reasons:

1.) Imagine you’re at home, the sun is out on a gorgeous weekend- and you’re watching your favorite college team play football. John, Susie, Lebron and Kim who are all best friends are sitting on the couch having beers and snacking on some food. You’re watching the in game in 3D on ESPN and you turn to John and high-five him after a big touchdown. You then scan the room and look around and realize all of you sitting on the couch are wearing big black bulky 3D glasses.

Can you picture that? I have a hard time believing that John, Susie and Lebron and Kim are going to be cool with wearing 3D glasses comfortably and watching the big game, don’t you?

2.) No one looks cool in 3D glasses. Period. Look how dumb I look:

Annnnnnnnnnnd this is why I’m proud to announce my start-up “designer” 3D glasses company (just kidding, but seriously- someone should).

3.) At CES there were several varying sizes of 3DTV’s. I demo’ed the 42″, the 60″ the 50″ and even the 20″ and 8″ TVs. I came to a realization that fundamentally sets apart 3DTV in the movie theater vs. 3DTV at your house.

3DTV’s are too small.

The reason why Avatar looks incredible in the theater, is you’re watching it on a huge screen that engulfs you into the movie. When you watch 3DTV on a 50″, the experience doesn’t compare. And you can forget the small 3DTV’s, it’s not worth the hassle of wearing the 3D glasses for what you get out of it.

IMHO, 3DTV at your house is simply a novelty at best and I would argue it will never go mainstream. In retrospect, I do think that movie theaters are the appropriate place people want to experience 3DTV, primarily because you’re focused on nothing else in the room but screen …not to mention the lights are off and it’s pitch black.

There was one type of 3D that did catch my attention at CES that I do think will be a hit. That’s 3D gaming for your computer and XBOX 360. I played Avatar on 360 at the NVIDIA booth and that experience was incredible. If 3D has any kind of chance, it’s the gaming sector that will benefit the most from it.

You can forget seeing a 3D movie at your friend’s house anytime soon. It’ll be a fad before you can say “Sony Mini-Disc“.

Am I crazy to think that 3DTV at your house won’t ever be the norm? What do you think? Is it just a fad? Make a comment.

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The full week series of CES video blog coverage continues! (this is the last installment). Here’s another collection of various video blogs I shot while at CES this year in Las Vegas. Enjoy!

A demo of the iPhone / Android application, CoPilot Live, a GPS navigation application that’s cheap, only $35 and free updates for life!

A look at the new Kodak Pulse wifi photo frame that will be released in March of this year. It uses wifi and has an email address in which you can send photos directly to the frame.

A look at jammit, the iPhone application that allows you to separate the drums, bass or guitar from songs so you can play along with the music.

A look at the Midland Radio BT2 Bluetooth wireless intercom at CES 2010. A pretty cool headset that can be helmet mounted that allows you to talk and/or listen to music while riding your motorcycle (disclosure: Midland Radio is the company that sponsored my CES trip).

A look at the Midland Radio Action Cam, a sweet fisheye lens portable video camera that allows you to mount it to just about anything (e.g. ski goggles, helmets, guns, dogs, etc.) (disclosure: Midland Radio is the company that sponsored my CES trip).

Here’s a collection of various video blogs I shot while at CES this year in Las Vegas.

This is pretty incredible to watch- it’s a clip of two really strong “Hand Balancing” dudes at the Motorola booth at CES 2010. I believe these guys are called, “Design Duo”, however I’m not 100% sure.

Here’s a quick look at the new 1080p waterproof Kodak playsport video camcorder. This comes out in April 2009 and is expected to be priced at $149. I use a Flip Mino HD, but I’m really tempted to get one of these- it’s a better and it’s cheap.

A first look at the Pocket Radar, a personal handheld doppler speed radar detector. This device can be used for all kinds of sports: baseball, racing, soccer, tennis, track & field, etc.

A demo of the new “Mint” hard surface robot cleaner- designed to work with swiffer wet and dry pads.

This video blog of the world’s thinnest TV from CES is something you have to see to believe it.

This TV is the LG LED Ultra Slim LED TV, 6.9mm/0.27″ depth (about as thick as your finger). This isn’t expected to hit the market until 2011, but there’s no doubt this TV is awesome! I should mention, no video or audio wires are running to the TV, it has wireless 1080p being transmitted wirelessly to the TV (the gray media box in the video).

This video blog is just one of the many CES 2010 videos I put together, this URL will be updated with more blogs this entire week.

The big buzz at CES was centered around 3DTV, however, a completely different technology had my attention: wireless electricity. Yeah, you read that right: wireless electricity. In my opinion, this was easily the most intriguing advancement to see at CES this year. The potential of this technology could really shake up several industries.

Now, if you’re like me- you probably don’t know the first thing about what wireless power or wireless electricity is. Ashish Gupta and Ryan Tseng explained to me the WiPower technology and demonstrate how it works in this video blog interview I shot at CES.

I want to note; WiPower isn’t the only company who’s developed wireless electricity. You’ve probably heard of Powermat, which is on the market now and some electric toothbrushes have been using a form of this technology as well. However, the difference in WiPower’s technology is that you’re not required to hold a fixed position to transfer power /electricity. They call it “freedom of position“. You’ll see in the video blog that you can freely move the light bulb in the air and it still stays on! Truly incredible insane mind blowing stuff.

…just think of all the potential applications you could apply this technology! Charge your electric car in your garage/parking lots without wires, charge everything on your desk at work just by sitting down, [insert more ideas here, etc, etc].

Who knows, it might not be long until you seeing cell phones that say have a “wireless charging ready” pre-installed on the device…
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Erin Byrne from Burson-Marsteller shares a quote so dead-on I wanted to share it with you:

People talk about online, online, online, it’s really about integration. Conversations go online, then offline, then online again. The most successful PR professionals use traditional PR to build awareness and then use social media relations and digital tools to drive from awareness to action.

Many times I first meet with clients who are so caught up with the shiny objects (e.g. social media, iPhone apps, Flash on their website) they easily forget the bigger picture. I often have to remind them, the entire touch-point experience your customers and audience has with you and your brand is multidimensional, multilayered and multifaceted. Don’t forget that. The read, they click, the search, they watch video and TV, they talk to their friends and work professional/colleagues/competitors. Understanding the flow of these customer experiences is critical to know before you can even begin crafting a strategy for desired outcomes, conversions or positioning of your brand.

Your “footprint” online, offline, on TV, in-person, even what’s said about you by other people- these are all are apart of a larger narrative that tell a story. Ensuring this story is consistent, cohesive and aligned with your larger organizational objectives will ensure you follow one of the fundamental marketing / branding rules: consistency facilitates recognition.
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If you follow me on Twitter, you probably see my Tweets talking about Timberland’s Earthkeepers (www.earthkeeper.com), a website project that I lead from concept, design to development which launched earlier this year. Recently, it won the Gold award in the “Green” category of the Davey Awards! The contest is an international competition and has over 4,000 entries every year- so I was stoked to hear the great news of winning the gold!

I thought use a blog post entry to share with you some details about my involvement in leading this project full disclosure: this is not a paid blog post- I’m writing this on my accord.

The Timberland Earthkeepers website project was is exciting to me since the goals and mission are something I personally believe in. To help you understand- let me explain the word “Earthkeepers”. First of all, it’s not a real word- Timberland made it up. “Earth”- where we all live, plus “keeper”- a protector or guardian …when combined, basically means someone who cares about the environment.

If you want the corporate mumbo-jumbo description, here’s the official Timberland take on the Earthkeepers mission:

“We at Timberland started Earthkeepers because we love the outdoors. Making outdoor boots, shoes and gear is what we do for a living. No more outdoors means no more living. For us—or anyone else. Of course, we realize that by making our products, we’re part of the problem. We believe it’s time for companies, like ours, to take a look at how the way they do business affects the environment and do something about it. Earthkeepers is one way we’re trying to do exactly that. Our goal—inspire and engage one million Earthkeepers.”

Pretty cool huh? I think so. If you’re curious for more information, take a look around at the website for more information. There are several exciting updates and enhancements on the road map.

When I first started working on this project, I was aware of the popular environmental issues and general steps you can take to help- but I certainly wasn’t exposed to the deeper niche topics. It was is a fun education process learning about all the aspects of the eco-conscious mindset. There’s a quote that I learned that I share with others that really hits the nail on the head of why a movement like this is so powerful:

Small changes, when aggregated on a large scale, can make a big change in the world.

What’s even more interesting is the positioning of Timberland’s Earthkeepers program is seeing a retail company not only embrace this attitude- but running with it and taking actions quickly. This movement is being driven by everyone in the company, including the person at the top, their CEO, Jeff Swartz. If you’re lucky enough to hear Jeff talk, he describes so fluidly his personal passion and mission of the eco-concious mindset companies should adopt. Furthermore, he uses Twitter to affect the masses of people and/or other CEOs.

Seeing and hearing all the things Timberland has dedicated itself to is exhausting (and I’m not just saying that because they’re my client). They do everything from planting over 1 million trees worldwide, to things like Timberland’s CEO banned bottled water at all their corporate offices.

Personally, since I’ve started this project, I’ve learned so much and started to take steps of my own: I now use a reusable water bottle at work and at home, I use reusable grocery sacks, I’ve convinced our office to not buy styrofoam cups or plates, I even created an Earth Day video blog earlier this year to get the good word out …just to mention a few.

I’m really excited to be leading the Earthkeepers website development- there’s lot of exciting things happening now and lined up for the future. For example, Wyclef Jean recently was announced as our celebrity spokesperson!! Keep tabs on www.earthkeeper.com for updates.
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If you’re plugged into the tech industry blogs- recently several companies are releasing “augmented reality” preview video clips. The lamence translation of augmented reality is: it provides detailed information on what you are physically pointing your camera phone “at” in real-time. When you watch the demo videos of how the technology “could” work, it certainly is enough to get the average geek excited. Take a look at the example below.

Cool huh? It’s a great concept. However, I’d like to play devils advocate + the realist perspective: Will people really want to OR remember to breakout out their cell phones and point them at stuff? I can’t help but think- while augmented reality could provide valuable data in a very unique way, from a practical standpoint, will the mainstream really use their phones to do this? Think of all the research studies regarding camera phone usage and how low the numbers are. How often do you use your camera phone?

That said, there seems to be a bigger shift needed here more than the development of the technology itself that is required first. When this technology is introduced- the socialization of how to use this technology I think will be a big hurdle that can’t be overlooked. It’s not at all impossible, but I think it’s going to be harder for the adoption of use of this technology than people think …just quick food for thought about a great technology that is certainly still in it’s infancy. It’ll be fun to track where and how fast this technology develops.